Field Notes: Summer 2022

Elliptic-leaved Shinleaf

(With thanks to Robin Wall Kimmerer for the exercise that inspired this.)

A small white flower beckons.

I make a cursory list so I can look up the flower in my field guide:

Five white petals.
Radial symmetry.
Simple leaves.
Basal leaf arrangement.

I want to linger, but feel the pull of work.

And then I’m annoyed with myself: Learning a name (and maybe I should give myself more credit for that) is not the same as knowing a plant.

A few days later I kneel and inhale the fragrance. Touch the smooth, elliptical leaves. Notice orange-tipped stamens clustered together and a protruding, curved style. And then sit next to the nodding flower in dappled light among pine needles.

The beginning of a relationship.

For the beauty of this walk

For the tang of Black Raspberries,
For the violet of Heal-All petals,
For the fragrance of Common Milkweed,
For the trills of Song Sparrow,
For the flutter of Big Tooth Aspen leaves,
For the softness of Wool Sower Galls,

For the beauty of this walk,
Mother Earth,
To you I write these words of gratitude.

Woodpecker rhythm

As the black and cream cloth with deep red accents emerges on my loom, my thoughts drift to woodpeckers.

To Hairy Woodpecker foraging in a tree trunk.

Tap-tap-tap, head-toss-left. Tap-tap-tap, head-toss-right.
Tap-tap-tap, head-toss-left. Tap-tap-tap, head-toss-right.

I imitated his movements as I watched and felt like I was dancing.

When I first wove this design six years ago, I couldn’t find a satisfying rhythm and swore I’d never weave it again. Now I’m revisiting it at a friend’s request. After a choppy start, I’ve made some adjustments and am developing a steady tempo.

Treadle-throw-beat, treadle-throw-beat.
Treadle-throw-beat, treadle-throw-beat.

My own nourishing dance.

The service I want to honor

Hanging taut from electric poles, banners with photos of men who served in the military greeted Asha and me on a recent trip. The layout and text varied in each of the four towns, but all included names and rank.

I spent the next twenty miles wondering whose service I would honor with banners.

Would I choose some of the species who have become extinct or are presumed extirpated in my state? Anointed Sallow Moth, Eastern Cougar, Five-lined Skink, Ghost Tiger Beetle, Gray Wolf, Heath Hen, Labrador Duck, Melissa Blue, Passenger Pigeon, Slender Clubmoss, Trout-perch.

Or the trees who recently gave life or limb when the electric company decided that they wanted a fifteen-foot buffer around the power lines? American Basswood, American Beech, Big Tooth Aspen, Black Birch, Eastern Hemlock, Red Oak, Shagbark Hickory, Sugar Maple, White Ash, White Pine to name but a few.

Or would I choose to draw attention to American Redstart, Beaver, Black Swallowtail, Common Golden Alexanders, Dark-green Bulrush, Eastern Chipmunk, Gray Squirrel, Heal-All, Interrupted Fern, Jewelweed, Mallard, Mountain Laurel, Nodding Sedge, Northern Cardinal, Paper Birch, Poverty Oatgrass, Red Eft, Red Fox, Sensitive Fern, Spring Peeper, Staghorn Sumac, Striped Maple, White Meadowsweet, White-tailed Deer, Woodland Sunflower — the Living Asha and I visit on our walks along the road?

You may also like:

Late Summer 2022 – My amended reply; Bird voices; Looking out. Looking in.; Palmate instead of red

Spring 2022 – Wings; Pink joy of spring; Wondering: One walk, one afternoon; A new-to-us trail; Companions after a sleepless night

Winter 2021/2022 – Breadcrumbs; But then, so when, and then; Winter visitors; My inner three-year-old meets ice; Tender hope, holy beauty

Late Fall 2021 – I almost said; Letter to myself after reading Hafiz; First snow

Fall 2021 – Second annual Gentian Day; Sitting with Tea and Tang; Eyes-closed listening; Not alone: Companions in the woods; Learning a new language: Then and now

Summer 2021 – Stretching lessons; No stepping stones; A red-feathered lesson in priorities